Last night, Andrew Lincoln’s tenure as the star of The Walking Deadcame to the end after nine seasons and 120 episodes. Now he can move on with his life and make [checks notes] Walking Dead movies.

Yes, that’s right. After revealing Rick Grimes final fate (SPOILER ALERT: He appeared to die protecting everyone, but somehow survived getting impaled and blown up in an explosion, and then was whisked away in a helicopter to parts unknown), AMC announced “a series of AMC Studios Original FIlms” starring Lincoln and written by former Walking Dead showrunner Scott M. Gimple, with the first going into production next year:

The first film will explore the story of where Rick is taken and what he faces in a new corner of the zombie apocalypse. As part of Gimple’s multi-year plan for The Walking Dead Universe, there are other projects currently in development, including additional films, specials, series, digital content and more. Some of the stories will relate to The Walking Dead as fans know it while others will be standalone stories that break into new creative territory.

It’s certainly a surprising end for Lincoln and Rick — in that it’s not an ending at all. For a show that has become famous for sparing almost no one in its cast, and for killing beloved characters left and right, who could have guessed that Rick will be leaving the show only to appear in more movies? Certainly not me.